Timeline
Citations and additional dates/events can be found in the Timeline Spreadsheet.
Credit: This timeline was compiled by the Pacific University Archivist, Eva Guggemos, in the course of research for her forthcoming book on the Forest Grove Indian School. For comments/questions, contact: archives@pacificu.edu
| 1878 Jul | The man who would become the Forest Grove Indian School's first superintendent, U.S. Army Lieutenant Melville C. Wilkinson, is dismissed from his special detail assignment as the aide-de-camp to General O.O. Howard, commander of the Army of the Columbia. |
| 1879 Apr 8 | Wilkinson writes a letter to the U.S. Commissioner of Indian Affairs asking to begin a school for Indian Youth on the Pacific Coast. |
| 1879 Jun | The War Department will not release Wilkinson for duty as an Indian School Superintendent. The Pacific University Trustees assist by asking for him to be detailed as a Professor of Military Science at the college. |
| 1879 Jul | The army allows Wilkinson to take a 3 year "special detail" assignment as a professor at Pacific University. This will allow him to start the Forest Grove Indian School. |
| 1879 Sep | Wilkinson begins teaching at Pacific while making plans to open an Indian School. Soon after, he finds a block of land near the Pacific University campus (modern address: between C/D Sts. and 22nd/23rd Aves.) which he arranges to lease from Pacific. |
| 1879 Dec | The Department of the Interior releases $2,500 towards the building of an Indian School in Forest Grove. |
| 1880 Feb 25 | The Forest Grove Indian School officially opens with the enrollment of the first cohort of students from Puyallup: 4 girls and 14 boys. Only one building, the Girls Dormitory, has been built. |
| 1880 Spr-Sum | Students construct the Boys' Dormitory, a workshop, and furnishings. (Early photograph of the campus from about this time.) |
| 1880 Oct 2 | U.S. President Hayes visits Forest Grove and gives a speech on the Indian School. By this time, 40 students have enrolled from Puyallup, Warm Springs and Alaska. |
| 1880 Nov | An inspector from the Office of Indian Affairs arrives while Wilkinson is away and reports "serious laxity of discipline" at the Indian School: students of the opposite sex being allowed to mingle, resulting in an unnamed "scandal" (possibly a pregnancy); and poor bookkeeping. |
| 1881 Mar | President Hayes leaves office; President Garfield is sworn in. |
| 1881 Jun | A photographer from the I.G. Davidson Studio in Portland visits the campus and takes a series of posed photographs of the classes. (See the last six photos on this page.) |
| 1881 Jul | The second cohort of Spokane students is taken from Eastern Washington to Forest Grove. En route, Superintendent Wilkinson stops in Portland and has a "before" picture taken of them, still wearing their clothes from home. |
| 1881 Sep | President Garfield dies; President Arthur is sworn in. |
| 1881 Oct 16 | Mattie Lot, one of the Spokane students pictured in the "before" portrait from the previous July, is the first student to die at the school. She is buried at the Forest View Cemetery in Forest Grove. |
| 1881 Oct 21 | Nearly all the students are taken to the Mechanic's Fair in Portland, where they sing for the attendees and display examples of their crafts. |
| 1882 Feb | A photographer from the I.G. Davidson Studio returns and takes more photographs, including the "after" picture of the Spokane students. Around 90 students are present at the school at this point, from Puyallup, Warm Springs, Alaska, Chehalis, Spokane and Umatilla. |
| 1882 May | Harper's Weekly, a popular national magazine, publishes an illustrated article about the school. |
| 1882 Jun | Superintendent Wilkinson learns that his 3-year "special detail" from the Army will expire in October, ending his term as the Superintendent as well as his Professorship at Pacific. He spends the next months trying to get an extension. |
| 1882 Oct | Wilkinson is forced to return to his regular Army unit, then stationed in Montana. He leaves his wife, Gertrude, in charge as Acting Superintendent. The Army designates a new officer named Henry Pierce to take over. |
| 1882 Nov | Two Spokane students break into a local shop, steal money, and run away. They are stopped while attempting to leave on a train in Beaverton. (See letter describing the incident.) |
| 1883 Jan | Henry Pierce arrives in Forest Grove but due to a family illness, leaves soon after. He never takes charge of the school. |
| 1883 Feb 10 | H.J. Minthorn, a Quaker Doctor who had previously worked at the Ponca Agency, takes over as the second superintendent of the Forest Grove Indian School. (See a photograph of school employees taken after Minthorn arrived.) |
| 1883 May | Superintendent Minthorn writes to the Commissioner of Indian Affairs to recommend either buying land in Forest Grove for the Indian School, or relocating the school to another town. |
| 1883 Aug | Minthorn begins campaigning to relocate the school to Newberg: a Quaker colony about 25 miles south of Forest Grove. |
| 1883 Nov | Minthorn advertises in The Oregonian that he is looking for cheap farmland for the school anywhere near Portland, and donations towards buying it. |
| 1884 Jan | Four years after the founding of the school, about 175 students are present on campus. A total of 214 have enrolled so far from Puyallup, Warm Springs, Alaska, Chehalis, Spokane, Umatilla, Nez Perce, Yakima, Sound, and Grand Ronde. |
| 1884 Mar | Minthorn tells The Oregonian that he has received offers of cheap or free sites for the Indian School in Newberg, Salem, Forest Grove, Amity, Olympia, and Seattle. |
| 1884 May | An inspector from the Office of Indian Affairs tours five potential new sites for the school: Forest Grove (a new site on the Hoxters' land, just south of Banks); Newberg; a site in Southeast Portland; and site in Southwest Portland; and a site north of Salem (now known as Chemawa). The inspector recommends the Salem site. |
| 1884 Jun | Pacific University Trustees deed the 4-acre original Indian School campus to the government. (It had previously been leased.) |
| 1884 Jul | A government appropriation of $20,000 becomes available to build a new Indian School campus, provided that someone in Oregon donates land sufficient for a farm. |
| 1884 Sep | The Secretary of the Interior rejects the land offered north of Forest Grove and in Newberg. Meanwhile, Wylie Moores of Salem deeds his 177 acre tract at Chemawa north of Salem to the government. |
| 1884 Oct | Citizens of Forest Grove collectively buy and offer to donate to the school a 23 acre tract of land abutting the north side of the original campus. This offer will be rejected. |
| 1884 Nov | Superintendent Minthorn resigns in order to become the superintendent of the Chilocco Indian School in present-day Oklahoma. W.V. Coffin, another Quaker doctor who had been the school physician, takes over as the third superintendent. |
| 1884 Dec | Superintendent Coffin forwards the deeds to the Chemawa land north of Salem to the Office of Indian Affairs. The next day, the Girls' Dormitory in Forest Grove burns down. |
| 1885 Jan | Five years have passed since the founding of the school. Around 220 students are on campus; a total of 281 have enrolled since 1880. The loss of the Girls' Dormitory, which also contained most of the academic classrooms, has left the students in miserable conditions. |
| 1885 Feb | The Oregon legislature votes to allow the U.S. government to take over the Chemawa land site north of Salem. The Secretary of the Interior officially approves taking possession of it as the new school campus, but says they cannot build anything permanent until the land title is approved. |
| 1885 Mar 4 | President Cleveland, first Democrat elected since the Civil War, is sworn in. This causes a cascade of new reappointments within the Department of the Interior over the following months. |
| 1885 Mar 5 | The first small group of students from Forest Grove arrives at Chemawa to begin clearing land. |
| 1885 Mar 31 | A Tulalip student, Jonathan Helm, is probably the last student to enroll in Forest Grove before the school relocates to Chemawa. A total of 310 students have enrolled since 1880, coming from: Puyallup, Warm Springs, Alaska, Chehalis, Spokane, Umatilla, Nez Perce, Yakima, the Sound Agency, Grand Ronde, Neah Bay (Makah), Siletz, Clatsop, Klamath and Tulalip. At least 11 students have died in school custody, mostly of tuberculosis. See a photograph of students dating from around this time period. |
| 1885 Apr | The owner of the land at Chemawa, Wylie Moores, re-deeds the property to the government, probably in order to clear up legal problems in his earlier version of the deed. |
| 1885 May | Two-thirds of the student body has been transferred to Chemawa, where they are living in temporary makeshift quarters. |
| 1885 Jun 5 | The U.S. Attorney General finally approves the title to the land at Chemawa. However, there is not enough time left in the year to construct permanent quarters, so the students will have to live in very poor conditions over the winter. |
| 1885 Sep | Enrollments of new students, which had paused since March, recommences at Chemawa. |
| 1886 Apr 3 | All of the students have been transferred to Chemawa by this date. The Forest Grove Indian School campus is abandoned by the U.S. Government. |
| 1886 Jun | Pacific University rescinds its deed for the block of land where the campus had been, and takes possession of the remaining campus buildings. |
| 1886-1892 | Students who had enrolled at Forest Grove continue attending the Indian School at Chemawa. Ultimately at least 40 of the 310 students who had enrolled at Forest Grove die in school custody, mostly from tuberculosis. |
| 1890s-1904 | Pacific University repurposes the former Indian School Boys' Domitory as its first dormitory for Pacific men. |
| 1908 | The former Boys' Dormitory, which has been sold to a private party, is demolished to make way for a new apartment building. |